Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, he said that when the Government took office in 2011 it had projected growth rates of 3% this year, but had downgraded this figure in 2012 to 2.2% and had further downgraded it to 1.3% last year.

Mr Doherty said that we would need to have a nominal growth rate of 7.5% in the second half of this year to reach the Government's targets.

He said the figures show that the economy has not grown to the level that was expected and that this should be a lesson for the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance that the experiment of austerity has failed.